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So, I was thinking that after a day of April fools jokes and such that perhaps a few people would appreciate some real news regarding our community, LCPDFR and our plans for the future. I used to do something like this at the beginning of the year however we were a little sidetracked and honestly didn't have much news that we were ready to share - something which has changed considerably.

The first thing that I want to say is that right now, as I speak, we're actually in the middle of a huge surge in popularity, traffic and activity and although the numbers are still a little rough, I can quite confidently say that the past few days have been our most active ever. Yesterday alone we saw over 400 registrations - a phenomenal number for one day. Today, we've had 414 so far. Put simply, we're doing our biggest numbers ever and as the guy that sat for years and watched this project grow slowly, the past few days have been really exciting for me.

We have now surpassed GPM in total member count, which I'm pretty sure was the only thing that was left to surpass them on. Indeed, just a year ago when we really started to expand and grow I don't really think anyone expected that we'd do so well in the long term. Back at the time, we understood the surge of traffic, all the new content and our sudden boost in popularity, but we didn't really think that it would continue that way - we thought of it as something that would come and stay, or even go, but certainly not come and then keep coming and coming (don't read that the wrong way please!). Back in late summer 2011, all I could hope for was that we could be a viable and progressive alternative, and now I feel pretty silly for setting my expectations so low.

On the subject of all this development and activity, 2013 is shaping up to be quite a big year for us. Aside from the blockbuster release of GTA V later on in September, there's a lot more going on closer to home with the recently announced ELS v7 coming out, for the first time ever on LCPDFR.com, in a little bit and also with LCPDFR and another project I've been working on for the past couple of months in close collaboration with Lt.Caine and LMS. Basically, as a lot of you will know, I've always wanted to make a lighting system that's a decent alternative to ELS. Years ago I put out a small and unfinished script called Illumination which used GTA IV's native method to draw light coronas in the game world, making a decent LED lightbar and an absolutely horrible traffic advisor. This didn't really go anywhere because of how bad it was, the complications of the whole thing and the popularity of ELS at the time. A while back I decided to revisit it, and didn't really get much closer although I did come up with some ways of making things look a whole lot better but nonetheless it was scrapped and forgotten about. The real breakthrough came early this year, however, when Lt.Caine sent me a message after something like 2 years of being away. After a few days, we had a basic plan put together, which brings me to the first announcement I have for everyone:

Emergency Lighting System (ELS) Dot Net

ELS Dot Net is a special version of ELS, running on the .Net Framework and being developed primarily by myself. It is a corona based system, like a few of the ones that have been shown of recently, although it has several key differences:

Built-in visibility checks for coronas shining through solid objects and such

AdvancedHook integration for flashing headlights and taillights (agan, these are customisable)

I hope to get some video of some of the cool features of ELS.Net released in the next week.

The next thing I want to address is LCPDFR, and where we're headed with it. For the past few months, LMS has been really hard at work with the mod, doing his best to write a whole host of new systems for it which I'll talk about a little later on this year - most likely in a couple of months. All of our development energy and focus as far as LCPDFR is concerned has, however, been directed towards these improvements which I suppose you could describe better as a complete rewrite, because that, to be quite frank, is what they are. We wanted to go further with the mod in the sense that instead of adding new callouts or pursuit features, we wanted to make the very core of it much more powerful and easy to build on. After many months, we're finally almost there with almost all of the features of the ever elusive 0.95 RC3 ported over and re-worked for the new engine. I thought that instead of waffling about the things LMS has been doing, it would be better to briefly list some examples of the new functionality present:

PedIntelligence class - it handles AI for peds, meaning that now instead of people not giving a damn that you're pursuing a highly armed suspect right in front of them, they'll actually notice and care about it!

Pursuits - We have some really powerful stuff for all sorts of chases, both in cars and on foot. Instead of using ranges and distance checks, officers can now lose sight of the suspects, and if they do, will spread out and search a perimeter like in real life (helicopters are really useful now).

Drastically improved Police AI - Suspect with a gun? Cops will start shouting at him to drop it.

Misc. Improvements - New tasks for things like pulling over (they do it a lot better now), ability to get the side of the street that a vehicle is on (useful for traffic stops) and full support for controllers.

All in all, we're trying our best to make the next version of LCPDFR (which is most likely going to be 1.0) as powerful as we can given our limited resources not to mention all of our other commitments. I'm sorry that it has taken this long for us to provide some concrete information about the state of the project - we've just been incredibly busy with all sorts of other things and only a few weeks ago were we anywhere near certain of what direction we were headed in with it. That being said, the one thing I can say with confidence is that you will see a release of LCPDFR this year, unless of course LMS gest run over by a bus or something and my screen spontaneously combusts sending highly charged lethal glass shards through my body, but that won't happen hopefully!

To conclude, I'm feeling really optimistic about the next 8 months. I think we've got a lot of exciting things on the way and from what we can tell, we're obviously doing something right on the community side of things given our recent statistics. I think we've all proven that LCPDFR, both the mod and this awesome website, has been nothing short of a total game-changer.

On behalf of the entire team here, I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support, even after 3 and a half long years. We've really made something special here, and it's not going to stop anytime soon.

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I always said lcpdfr would eventually pass up gpm and would ne better than them. I am glad to see that day has finally come. I did however have a question about 1.0, a while back in 0.95 Alpha 3 I seen that it had a terrorist type of call, something that had to do with bombs, is this still planned on being implimented or is it even still being worked on?

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I always said lcpdfr would eventually pass up gpm and would ne better than them. I am glad to see that day has finally come. I did however have a question about 1.0, a while back in 0.95 Alpha 3 I seen that it had a terrorist type of call, something that had to do with bombs, is this still planned on being implimented or is it even still being worked on?

No, our focus is more directed towards every day policing as much as possible, so we don't have any plans for things like that.

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Very excited to be reading about this, not just LCPDFR 1.0, but everything together! I am very happy to have been a part of this website for as long as I have and it's great seeing all these updates and improvements coming this year. As many before me have stated, 2013 is shaping up to be one hell of a year! (And who thought 13 was an unlucky number?)

Kidding aside, thank you (Sam) and everyone else that has been such a major roll in making this what it truly is, less of just a place to get mods, and more of a community. There definitely is something special here.

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This is great news! I am very excited for a new version of LCPD:FR and for ELS Dot Net, great work to everyone that has a hand in the projects. I'm glad to be around to see LCPD:FR grow and all these great people getting together to produce some amazing mods for the amazing LCPD:FR community out there! Thank you guys again, you guys and keep GTA IV alive with these amazing mods. It's going to be a great couple of months for everyone! Thank you guys again!Great work!

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We have now surpassed GPM in total member count, which I'm pretty sure was the only thing that was left to surpass them on. Indeed, just a year ago when we really started to expand and grow I don't really think anyone expected that we'd do so well in the long term. Back at the time, we understood the surge of traffic, all the new content and our sudden boost in popularity, but we didn't really think that it would continue that way - we thought of it as something that would come and stay, or even go, but certainly not come and then keep coming and coming (don't read that the wrong way please!). Back in late summer 2011, all I could hope for was that we could be a viable and progressive alternative, and now I feel pretty silly for setting my expectations so low.

I only expect this place to grow more and more as the years go on. Congratulations Sam for making it this far!

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Sam, you are a one of a kind! You have come SO far (as for the rest of the community and the staff)! You guys work SO hard for us as we appreciate ever single second of it! I don't even mind if RC3 comes in 2014! You guys keep with your pace, and do what you do best!

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Well I'm gonna be honest I'm just satisfied about playing LCPDFR doesn't matter how many scripts I have. The game itself is just too good of a game for I have yet too find another actual policing game as real as this one, and before I could even get a computer good enough too run GTA IV and LCPDFR I've always watched other videos of gamers who play LCPDFR. Its literally been fun and there's not doubt in my mind that I would give it up for any other policing game as real as this one. Congrats too LCPDFR

Outstanding work again Sam!!! It is amazing how when I first joined till now this community grew to what it is today... And t is great to see tonnes of people love LCPDFR the way it is... I can't wait for it!!!!!!! Great work once again!!!